Becky Pliego's Commonplace

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The problem is that when Christians talk about the problem of sin, the reality of what it means to be guilty before God, the condemnation that holds the world captive, we actually do not mean to coax you onto a wire to cross the Grand Canyon. We do not mean for you to try harder, to be better. This is precisely what the Christian gospel is not. The call to repentance is not more condemnation. The call to repentance is always accompanied by the good news that that Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, the Kingdom of Heaven is near, the Kingdom of Heaven is here. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a kingdom of works righteousness. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a game of bureaucratic chutes and corporate ladders amped up on angelic steroids unto ages of ages, amen. The Kingdom of Heaven is the Kingdom of Grace. The Kingdom of Heaven is the Kingdom of God’s Lovingkindness.

“Grace is more potent than nature: it can make the timid courageous, cool the most hotheaded, quiet the impetuous. Grace works submissiveness in the most impulsive. It makes our hearts calm when outward circumstances are tempestuous, and though God lets loose His winds upon us, He can keep us from being discomposed by them and lay the same command upon our passions as upon angry waves: ‘Peace, be still.’ (Mark 4:39)”

“I’m writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you’ve done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God’s grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle.” (John Ames)